Where’s Melania’s Vogue Feature?
By Hope Harvard
Vogue Magazine, the Condé Nast subsidiary turned progressive propaganda machine, loves to feature female political trailblazers. Under one condition. Its cover girl club is Democratic-exclusive. From Jackie Kennedy to Michelle Obama, Vogue highlights first ladies that toe the liberal line, no matter the controversies their husbands administrations were embroiled in (looking at you HRC). Now, Vogue has showcased Jill Biden on the front page of its latest edition, with the laughably inaccurate headline, “A First Lady for All of Us,” to match. Whoever the “all of us” are, it certainly doesn’t include me.
In fact, millions of conservative women have been unrepresented and effectively disenfranchised by the fashion conglomerates for years. Not a word of praise was written about our beloved Nancy Reagan in Cosmopolitan, nor was a single page dedicated to Melania Trump in Elle while she supported her spouse in office. Vogue should issue a correction: Jill Biden is a first lady for some of us. The magazine’s tone-deafness in suggesting otherwise tells you all you need to know about how much it values women with alternative views.
It’s become an American tradition for fashion magazines to interview presidential wives during their time in the White House. The First Lady has always occupied the special position of being a global trendsetter and the president’s right hand woman, setting the nation’s style pulse and moral compass, while quietly influencing the president’s executive priorities. Even when they outlive their husbands, like in the case of widow to former President Kennedy, the retired first ladies remain in the limelight, captivating and dazzling America with their every move.
Fashion magazines treated the fabulous Jackie O like the princess of Camelot, worshipping her bravery and beauty. Her iconic style, like the colorful Lilly Pulitzer shift dresses she sported at the Kennedy Hyannis compound, was closely followed and acclaimed. During her reign, Michelle Obama received the same, if not more, adoration. She landed features on twelve magazine covers, a new record that put her predecessors to shame.
But the fashion industry turned its back on supermodel First Lady Melania Trump. Despite Melania meeting many of the prongs of progressive criteria, as an immigrant and successful woman, high couture wanted nothing to do with her after 2016. Only in 2005 following her wedding to Donald Trump did she appear in Vogue. By rejecting Melania once her husband became a Republican presidential candidate, the fashion business signaled that its political prejudice ran deeper than its focus on female empowerment.
Melania endured ruthless criticism by fashion and mainstream media alike. From the moment Trump descended the infamous escalator, Melania was made a co-conspirator and enemy. Unlike Melania, Jill Biden will never have to worry about poor press coverage by her sycophant reporters. In her Vogue interview Jill said, “I don’t think it should be, you know, me versus the press.” Neither Jill nor Joe will ever have to field hard ball questions or deal with a combative media intent on tarnishing their reputation, legitimacy, and legacy.
Big fashion applauds Jill for her Doctorate degree, chanting all hail “Dr. Biden.” But they conveniently forget that Melania boasts a repertoire of incredible accomplishments and a rags to riches story to boot. The first modern immigrant first lady, Melania grew up in Europe and worked her way into the fashion capitals of the world: Milan, Paris, and New York City. Starting with virtually nothing, she fought tooth and nail to achieve one of the highest honors in her field.
After moving to Manhattan in 1996, Melania rose to international supermodel stardom. Not stopping there, Melania became an entrepreneur, starting her own jewelry business and skincare company. She went from being religiously persecuted for her Catholicism in the atheist state of Slovenia (her father had to baptize her in secret) to meeting Pope Francis as the First Lady of the United States.
Fluent in Slovenian, English, French, Italian, and German, Melania never received due credit for her diverse cultural background. Rather than admit her amazing linguistic abilities, the media ridiculed Melania for her accent. So long as the victim was Trump’s wife, racism was a-ok with them. While Vogue dubbed Michelle Obama “The First Lady The World Has Been Waiting for,” it discounted Melania because of her political affiliation. Many American women had been patiently waiting for an intelligent, gorgeous and conservative first lady to take the seat next to the president. Where was our say?
The Left jumped on every opportunity to tear Melania down. While she traveled around the world with Trump, the media criticized her fashion choices instead of focusing on her positive international impact. Now the press panders and marvels at Jill’s tacky floral dresses and blazer combinations, as she jet sets across America to promote Joe’s radical agenda.
It’s plainly self-evident that Vogue is no longer interested in fashion. Fashion magazines are in the business of pushing the progressive political agenda, sparing no expense to get the top movers and shakers on the front page.
That’s fine by me. Vogue should give up pretending that it does fashion anymore and own up to it’s real mission. Make no mistake; Vogue and various fashion magazines reported on Melania plenty. The difference was that they bashed her style, pitted her against her husband, and painted her as an unapproachable, brainless figurine. What they failed at spectacularly was lending the woman a voice and the platform to share her own thoughts.
The truth is, the Left is jealous and afraid. No one more than the CEO of Vogue, Anna Wintour. She cannot stand that Melania is as beautiful as she is intelligent. The fact that she refuses to extend a photoshoot to women who don’t align with Vogue’s politics reveals the platform’s fragility. Perhaps illiberal leftist fashion is more terrified that it’ll lose its grip on power to a conservative woman admired by many American people.
Melania is the epitome of the American Dream and we choose to celebrate her. After all, who reads Vogue these days anyway?
Thankfully, there’s a new fashion powerhouse on the market to represent the women Vogue has left in the dust… and you just so happen to be reading it.
Photo via Vogue — They famously captioned this photo of FLOTUS in her Michael Kors and Hervé ensemble, “5 Times Melania Trump’s Uniform Said “Don’t Touch Me.” Charming.
